2024-02-16 15:33:57
From January 29 to February 8, the Cediv Travel network of travel agencies organized in collaboration with the Côté Soleil Expéditions agency the ascent of the highest peak in Africa in the northeast of Tanzania. Thirty tourism professionals embarked on this adventure. Back with three questions addressed to Adriana Minchella, president of Cediv Travel.
Can you remind us how the idea of bringing together a group of tourism professionals to tackle Kilimanjaro was born?
We have to go back to the Covid pandemic. An extremely difficult time to live through. With our members, we have increased the number of videoconferences, up to three per day. We didn’t leave each other for two years. We remained hyper active. No one has experienced what we experienced.
And then one day we decided to do something original and unusual if we might all manage economically. Everyone went there as they wished. I always had this dream of seeing Kilimanjaro up close. The first time I came to Kenya, to Amboseli Park located at the foot of Kili, I was fascinated by this mountain. The project appealed, it was selected.
Within the network, there is the Côté Soleil Expéditions agency headed by Isabelle Mislanghe. She offered to organize this trip and accompany us. The idea was gone. This adventure is a continuation of the difficulty experienced during the pandemic. A strong collective that we decided to transpose onto the slopes of the legendary Kilimanjaro.
So how did this expedition go?
If I committed to this expedition, it is to experience it as best as possible. I am proud to have trained people with radically different profiles. We demonstrated our strength of character and our will. We are the example of a united and very strong collective.
On a personal level, given my disability, I mightn’t do with my legs what I wanted, nevertheless I wanted to set an example. I had to take the troop. I was in front. On the first day, 12 kilometers, 1,200 meters of elevation gain, it was hard but I felt it was an extraordinary challenge.
I pushed myself to the limit. I felt the desire to go all the way. Suddenly there was an obligation in the collective to climb to the top. Even though I was scared at times, because the unknown is scary, I knew they were going to do it. There was no other outcome than victory. And what a great victory.
“Alone we go fast, together we go far” has become the Cediv adage. Do you already have other challenges?
Why not. We are a young network also integrating experienced people. This gives us strength, dynamism. We don’t go looking for agencies, we don’t prospect, they come to us alone because they want to find a family, a state of mind within the Cediv.
What we did, Kilimanjaro, is extraordinary. We have to continue. I think of another emblematic trip, Santiago de Compostela. It’s even longer but here too we can break it down into different stages allowing us to combine work, meetings and discoveries. At Cediv, we say what we do and we do what we say. So it will surely be a great operation, especially with young people who need to find themselves in a different setting, a different universe.
Find here the story of the adventure on Kilimanjaro.
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